


Circus of Misfits

by Gears112



Category: Five Nights at Freddy's
Genre: All's Normal in the World, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Childhood Friends, Drabbles Oneshots etc, Family Bonding, Five Grownups have no idea how to business, Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted, Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach, Flashbacks, Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator | Five Nights at Freddy's 6, Gen, Ghostly Shenanigans, Headcanon, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Mentioned Animatronics (Five Nights at Freddy's), Mentioned Purple Guy (Five Nights at Freddy's), Multi, Multiple Masked Individuals at Fazbear Establishments, My own take on the FNAF Lore, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Possessed Animatronics (Five Nights at Freddy's), Post-Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator | Five Nights at Freddy's 6, Pre-Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach, Prompts Welcomed, Sentient Animatronics (Five Nights at Freddy's), Shady Fazbear Entertainment, Silver Parasol Games, Team Bonding, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-31
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-02-25 12:34:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 11,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22496197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gears112/pseuds/Gears112
Summary: One-shots, Drabbles, and Multi-Chapters set in my own take on the FNAF Lore, focusing mainly on Pizzeria Simulator and Help Wanted.Suggestions/Prompts are welcomed!
Comments: 10
Kudos: 48





	1. New Recruits (FFPS)

....

“And here we are~” The business suited woman sang as she led the three adults towards the rather small building. “The brand new Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza Place and the new spot for your fabulous new careers to grow~”

“Fazbear Entertainment threatened to file a lawsuit against Fazbear Frights.” The red head pointed out.

“And you’re being way too damn perky this early in the morning.” The dirty blonde muttered before knocking back another swig of her coffee. “Why couldn’t we just come later?” The woman laughed.

“Early bird catches the worm Ms. Jones!” She opened the front door and ushered the three in, where a man was grumbling to himself as he was fiddling with a vacuum cleaner while a little lavender and white bear was idly dancing next to him. “Good Morning Mr. Fitzgerald~” The man snapped up his head in a slight panic before forcing a weak smile. 

“Uh, hey there Anna...who are…?”

“Your new staff!” She said. “After all, it wouldn’t be fair for you to try and bring fantasy and fun to families without some help.” She chuckled at her own joke as Ms. Jones glared at her while sipping her drink. The brunet of the group sighed softly and offered a weak smile to Jeremy.

“Hi there, I’m-”

“Greetings Michael Afton!” The little bear exclaimed cheerfully, earning stares from the adults before they turned to the woman in the suit who chuckled as if it wasn't that big of a deal.

“It looks like the facial recognition works,” She explained. “And since you’re already in the system, Helpy was able to recognize you. I’ll make sure that you two are added to the system as well.” Michael pursed his lips as Helpy tapped his chin.

“Would you prefer being called the other name that’s on file?”

“No. Michael’s fine.” He said a tad too quickly, earning a look from both the woman with a coffee and the redhead. 

“Okey Dokey! I’m Helpy and I’m here to help!”

“Cool name little dude!” The redhead laughed. “I’m Mal, and this is Effie, man…”

“Jeremy Fitzgerald.” The man holding the vacuum said quietly.

“Now, I’ve got some business to attend to, so I’ll let you and Helpy take the reigns. Best of luck you four and remember, don’t forget to smile~” The woman sang as she sauntered out of the restaurant, leaving the four in an awkward silence before Jeremy spoke up.

“Your dad started Fazbear Entertainment?” He asked and Michael shrugged.

“Unfortunately.” Was what Michael muttered under his breath and Jeremy nodded slowly.

“Yeah, I don’t have anything nice to say about him either.” He sighed as he set the vacuum cleaner to the side. “Helpy, what exactly am I supposed to do?’ The bear rhythmically tapped his chin for a few moments before speaking.

“One of the options is the New Hire Orientation!” Jeremy glared at the bear who chuckled sheepishly. “Or well, you can discuss what roles need to be filled here at the establishment...or if you give me a minute I can pull up ice breaker games that are in the database…” Jeremy groaned, wiping his face as Effie looked at the vacuum cleaner.

“Should I even ask about this?” She asked slowly, pointing to it.

“The thing says it’s Mr. Hugs,” Jeremy mumbled before gesturing to Helpy who perked up.

“Mr. Hugs is the leader of the Trash Gang! He has a low level of entertainment value but a low level of risk value!” The bear explained excitedly. “Mr. Jeremy was making sure he could work! At least till we have enough money for a new stage and animatronics!”

“It’s a vacuum cleaner with googly eyes,” The redhead pointed out and Helpy pouted.

“Well it’s still a work in progress!” Both the redhead and brunet turned to the blonde who sighed.

“There a tool kit nearby? I might be able to macgyver a servo or two to make him wave or something.”

“Oh goodie! I’ll grab it!” The bear cheered excitedly and hobbled towards a closet door. The four watched him run off before Jeremy looked at the woman curiously.

“You’re a mechanic?”

“In the loosest sense of the word, but yeah, that was my job at Frights.” Jeremy nodded slowly before sighing sadly.

“I honestly have no idea what I’m doing.” He admitted as he looked at his hands, struggling to form the words. “I should be dead, but I’m not, and I’m stuck with this hellhole because-”

“Fazbear Entertainment blows man,” The redhead said simply, sitting next to Jeremy. “Totally get it man…that bitch is basically threatening us three with a lawsuit cause of ‘copyright infringement’ unless we work here…” Mal sighed and rubbed the back of his head. “The judge would totally toss it out, but I can’t afford lawyers…” Jeremy offered a sympathetic pat on the back as the tiny bear waddled back, carrying the much bigger toolbox rather comically. “What…”

“I got it!” Helpy sang happily before tripping. “WHOA!” The adults winced at the crash, the tools scattered about. Michael went over to the bot first, and helped it back to its feet as the woman, Effie, walked over and picked up the tools. Jeremy sighed and looked at the bear in disbelief.

“And you think I’m going to let you deliver food to people?”

“Pizza’s gonna be easier to carry sir!” Mal snickered and Effie chuckled as the bear huffed cutely and crossed his arms, as if it would prove his point the franchise owner. Jeremy didn’t look impressed.

“Uh huh, sure.”


	2. The Peanut Gallery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A drabble starring Jeremy and his special little 'friend' during regular hours.

...

“....Shit, it’s Dale.” Jeremy paled as he spotted a familiar face entering the place, carrying a few presents and following after a pair of children. 

_ You could kill him. _

Jeremy winced as he rubbed his temples, trying to ignore the sing songy voice that echoed in his head, the unfortunate reminder of why he was trapped in this situation in the first place. Granted, he couldn’t quite recall the details of what or how, but that still didn’t help matters, especially when the voice kept taunting and egging him to k-

“Yo, Jere, you alright?” Effie asked curiously, showing up next to him. He sighed and looked at her.

“Just saw my old boss.” He said, thinking that he could drown out the now-pouty-sounding voice in his head; sure she wasn’t as talkative as Mal, but anything could work right now. Effie looked at him in surprise after looking at the direction he gestured to.

“No way, you worked at Silver Parasol Games?”He raised an eyebrow. “Friend of mine worked in the IT department, Mark Cho,” Jeremy nodded slowly; name certainly sounded familiar. 

“Yeah…I think I remember him…You know Dale though?”

“Considering how many times I’ve had to listen to Mark and Ness bitch about him, especially with the company shut down? Heck, I could probably give you his entire resume, work ethic and probably most of what his passwords are.” Jeremy snorted before pausing.

“Wait...there was a shut down?”

_ It is kind of hard to keep a business going when an employee tries to remove their face the unfun way. _

“There’s a fun way?” He muttered before shaking his head quickly, hoping that Effie didn’t hear him. “N-Nevermind,” He said quickly as his employee raised an eyebrow. “How are animatronics?” Effie shrugged absently.

“They’re working well enough, though if you can, pass a note saying that Afton guy or whoever did the blueprints needs a smack upside the head. Half of the notes are in English on letters alone.”

_ Rude. _

Jeremy chuckled slightly as Effie made a face before stretching her shoulders.

“I’m still working on the Lefty bear you just got but there’s just something off about it…” Jeremy raised an eyebrow and the woman continued. I don’t know, it’s weird to explain, but there’s just something off when I’m working on him and it can hear kids…but at the same time, I am not dealing with the lawsuits if its jaw falls off and hits a bitch.”

“You mean a kid?”

“A kid would know to move out of the way.” Jeremy stared at her, opening his mouth slowly before closing it and shaking his head.

“Maybe you can use a music box?” Effie looked at him in confusion. “I know back in the ‘87 Pizzeria, one of the animatronics used to be pretty passive if there was a music box melody playing…” She nodded slowly.

“Any particular ones, or you think I could get away with some viking metal?” Jeremy blinked slowly.

_ What. _

“What?” Effie snickered.

“I’m joking man; Nessa’s been blaring it or something like that on her free time and I’m still trying to understand how and why…” She pulled out her phone and looked at it. “I probably will have enough juice to handle playing some old school music box covers.” She sighed as she placed it back in her pocket. “Well, I’ll try it out and give you a heads up. Later man!” She walked off with a wave and Jeremy waved back slowly.

_ You know that’s never going to work when you’re closing up tonight. _

Jeremy pursed his lips before shaking his head forcefully, as if the voice would be silenced, as he headed over to the managerial office to prep for when he had to close.

"Shut up and let me dream."


	3. No Biggie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mildly goofy drabble, especially at the end, where Effie is working on the newer animatronic and finds out about the secret its hiding.

...

“Hm..this is weird…” Effie noted as she looked at the open cavity of the black bear, seeing the large cage like device in the stomach. She looked back at the blueprints that came with the animatronic and made a face; only the animatronic’s face was shown, which of course meant she was going to have to macgyver a solution to the jerky movement herself. “Of course this can’t be easy…” She looked at her phone, taking a moment to make sure that the music box video was a loop, before turning back to the animatronic. “This doesn’t make sense…” She tapped the chest cavity absently. “This adds about 10 extra pounds of weight...so why would-” She froze as there was a tapping sound from inside the chest. “Holy sh...what the…how…” Effie stared at the chest, trying to run through the different reasons for this. “OK, ok, ok…maybe it’s the internal thing clicking…nah, what kind of robot uses that anyways…” There was two knocks and Effie raised an eyebrow. “Was that a yes?”

Another two knocks.

“Ok so something is in there..Ok…this is up there with weird days I’ve had,” She rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Let’s just roll with this; are you ok first off?” 

Two knocks and Effie sighed in relief. 

“At least I’m not gonna get in trouble with that perky s-o-b Anna for not following protocol….’I don’t care if there’s a small child in there, Ms. Jones you will need to have access granted to you each time before you take apart any of the animatronics’.” Effie made a face. “You’re not a small child though, are you?” 

There was a rather long pause before there was a single knock.

“Are you even a kid?” 

No answer and Effie frowned. 

“Are you a ghost and haunting the animatronic like that urban legend that Mal was basing Frights off of?” There were two knocks, though admittedly there was a pause in between, like whoever inside was thinking about that answer. “Huh, that’s...I mean, I want to say that’s kinda cool, but at the same time, that’s also really freaking horrible…” She laughed nervously, rubbing the back of her head. “Do you have a name at least? At least so I can tell Jere when it’s closing and see if I can help you get some peace at least-I mean, not kick you out to the great beyond-I just mean, I don’t wanna be rude and call you ‘Ghosty Guy’ or ‘Casper’...” Effie snorted, rambling slightly, almost missing the two knocks. “Ok, ok...how to figure out your name is the next question…oh! Wait a minute,” Effie grabbed an abandoned napkin and pulled out her pen, quickly scribbling out the code she recalled in one of her old college classes. As she wrote, she explained the plan to the spirit, and after some scrambling and experimentation, Effie smiled. “Alright, I think we got it…now let’s figure out your name…”

.

* * *

.

“So did you figure out what happened?” Jeremy asked as Effie was grabbing her stuff in the break room.

“Yeah, the joints in Lefty were incorrectly put in, so I macgyvered a temporary solution...if you manage to get another set of ‘gifts’ from the scrap yard, I’ll make something better…but hey, Charlie was impressed with my solution so win win,” Jeremy nodded slowly before making a face.

“Wait, who?” 

“Oh right, I almost forgot.” Effie said, turning back to Jeremy. “The bot’s haunted by a spirit named Charlie. Pretty cool kid if you ask me. No biggie,” With that, Effie waved at Jeremy as she walked off. “See ya tomorrow!” Jeremy opened his open, as if he wanted to call after her, but she was out the door.

“Wait...what?”


	4. Thwarting the Bullies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While working the day shift, Michael comes across a group of kids harassing another and tries to step in and help. Thankfully he has some backup to handle this little disruption.

...

“Hey! Stop bullying him.” The 10 year olds looked at him in annoyance and Michael tried to hide his frown; they weren’t going to listen to him.

“You’re not my dad.” The leader of the gang snarked.

“Oh hey, Michael,” Michael admittedly jumped as Mal wrapped an arm around him. “Remind me to talk to the boss about adding another camera to the place. Be a real shame if that serial killer decided to drop off his victims here.” The boys stared at Mal with wide eyes and Michael stared at Mal, wondering why the hell he was talking out loud in front of customers.

“S-Serial Killer?” One of the boys asked, trying to keep his voice from cracking and Mal waved absently.

“Oh yeah, it’s all in the news and everything; cops find the body in a ritualistic set up, lungs hanging out over their shoulders, the use.” He said in a far too casual tone of voice. “Of course, the killer seems to only go after adults, but hey, that golden killer back in the 80s was known to change things up a bit...but anyways, just to remind you kiddos there’s a zero tolerance policy for harassment, so unless you want to be banned from coming back and risking meeting that guy, beat it.” Mal beamed brightly and the gang quickly hurried away from the kid they were bullying and Mal snickered. “Works every time!” Michael stared at Mal, blinking slowly.

“You weren’t serious?” Michael asked slowly and Mal nodded.

“Phaw dude, as far as those punks know it is, but they’re the kinda punks that aren’t going to double check my story without risking getting in trouble with their parents.” He looked over at the younger kid. “You ok though?” The little one nodded quickly. “Awesome, hey, how about you head to the prize corner and talk to the lady over there,” He pointed to Effie, who was trying to not fall asleep at the prize corner. “You let her know what happened, and she’ll get you sorted with something cool, ok?” The kid nodded quickly and hurried over to the prize corner. Mal and Michael watched the kid talk to Effie, who looked up at the two, before turning back to the kid and helping him pick out a prize. Michael looked at Mal and smiled.

“Thanks for helping…” Mal laughed.

“Not a problem my dude!” He explained as he let go of Michael. “Punks like that kinda rub me the wrong way so I figured I’d step in before things got out of hand.” He still kept up his smile but Michael felt a sense of dread pile up in his stomach as he looked at the plastered smile.

“Heh, heh, yeah...I’m not really that good at security I guess….”

“Pshaw my dude!” Mal said, going back to his bubbly self. “Punks are just punks man! You do great with the other security stuff! I mean, come on! You’ve kept many a kid from stealing the animatronic’s toys ‘n stuff! I’ll handle the punks man,” He nudged Michael. “I mean, it’ll keep Effie from punting the kids; after all, there’s a reason she wanted the horror place to be ultra spooky man…”

“Not a fan of kids?” He asked and Mal nodded.

“She’s got three ages she tolerates them at, and that’s it. Kinda reminds me of an old cat my mom had…” Mal snickered, no doubt remembering the fury of the family feline, before looking at Michael. “Did you have any family pets?” Michael made a so-so motion.

“Father wasn’t...a fan of pets...too much responsibility that he’d have to take care of…” He muttered, rubbing the back of his head. “Didn’t really stop my siblings from trying when we went to the mall…” Mal chuckled. “Besides, he usually kept the animatronics in the house when he was working on them…” Michael trailed off softly and Mal patted his back.

“Sounds like you had the zoo without the smell, man! Now at least come to work to see the zoo!” He gestured to the animatronics that were performing and Michael couldn’t help but laugh.

“I-I suppose you have a point Mal…” The orange man laughed brightly and wrapped an arm around Michael.

“Course I do man! Come on, let’s go grab a slice of pizza and see if that little dude needs help!”

“S-Sure…”


	5. Helpy the Cupid

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A very short drabble involving Valentine's Day as the crew comes in for the day and see the surprise Helpy left for them

...

“Roses are red! Violets are sometimes blue! You’re the best technician, and we’d be busted without you!” Effie snorted as she took the paper heart from the tiny bear.

“Thanks Helpy...looks like you were busy last night…” She chuckled at the attempt to decorate the location.

“I wanted to help bring the festivities of the holiday to the pizzeria!” He quipped before waddling over to Michael, who was staring in disbelief at the decoration. “Cherries are red! The sky is blue! You're great at the security job you do!” Michael smiled awkwardly as he took his valentine.

“Um...thanks?”

“You’re welcome!” Helpy beamed. “Oh! Mr. Jeremy! Here’s your Valentine!”

“Gotta open Helpy. Maybe later.” Michael and Effie shared a laugh as the bear followed their boss as the man tried to make a beeline to his office and not trip over the bear.

“He loves this attention…” Michael noted and Effie nodded.

“For sure, and you this’ll be amazing for the website. Lemme grab a few pics before he notices.” Effie said before pulling out her phone and following behind the duo. Michael chuckled before looking at the paper heart and smiling softly, remembering childhood memories of the different Valentine Days he endured. He smiled softly before shaking his head as Mal entered behind him.

“What the…” Michael turned to Mal and smiled sheepishly.

“Helpy’s trying to be Cupid and deliver valentines.…” Mal nodded slowly.

“Huh...cool beans.” Mal yawned and stretched his back. “I’mma go snag some candies from the kitchen before Jere notices.” He snickered as he hurried to where the kitchen was as Jeremy started to cuss out the tiny bear and the woman. Michael chuckled and shook his head.

“Grab me something too if you can…”

“You betcha dude!”


	6. Closed For Business

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Very short drabble where the resturant has to be closed for cleaning, just to flesh out some characterization/get the plot bunny off my back

....

“You said you were fucking joking!”

“I thought I was! There’s no proof they were actually used!” Jeremy sighed as he rubbed his temples as he sat outside of the pizzeria, sitting with the other 3 employees while Ana and the other Fazbear Entertainment higher ups were investigating said building. “More than likely it was just a mistranslation of a metaphor!”

“It’s certainly looking like a mistranslation now!”

“So, how long till we know for sure?” Effie asked as she sat next to her boss. Jeremy shrugged.

“No fucking clue.”

“So it still could be the raccoon I told Ana about but she shot down getting an exterminator?”

“Willing to bet. Though those two are convinced it’s some serial killer.”

“Not that I’d know any serial killers, but wouldn’t it be counter productive to hit another Fazbear Establishment?” Jeremy looked at her curiously. “I mean, our security isn’t the greatest-especially when it comes to a certain somebody handing out plushes to the kids that don’t have enough tokens,” She not so subtly gestured to the two arguing. “But the place is both the starting and ending spot for patrols for a reason.” Jeremy nodded slowly.

“Valid point…” Jeremy sighed as he leaned his head on the pink and purple teddy bear sized animatronic. “There’s no missing children reports filed recently, right Helpy?”

“No sir!” The bear noted. “At least, none that are in the public database…” The man let out a sigh of relief, a momentary moment of peace on his face as Ana stormed out. Both the ones sitting looked at her as she begrudgingly got out her wallet. Effie didn’t hide a smirk as a twenty was harshly shoved into her face.

“The raccoon didn’t get lucky this time, huh?”

“Fucking can it Ms. Jones.” Mal and Michael stopped mid argument as they realized what actually happened. “They’re cleaning the carpet and the Rockstar Bonnie animatronic and will be done in an hour. I will arrange for an exterminator for next week. Until then, I don’t want to hear a fucking word.” With that she stormed back to her car. Effie snickered as she pocketed the money.

“Another point for  _ moi _ ~” Helpy made a little beep.

“That’s two points for you compared to Anna’s one. And that’s only because she is the top banana!” The little robot said sagely, earning some rare laughter from Jeremy. 

“Well, I guess we’re going to have to wait till we get in…” Mal said, once the laughter died down. “I can go grab something at that bakery place that opened up, or whatever’s cheap at Jr’s,” 

“That place is still open?” Jeremy asked. “I thought they closed after the food poisoning debacle.”

“Which one?” Effie retorted.

“The most recent one was on March 24th 2003, but that one only got like two people sick.” Mal made a face.

“I’ll head to the bakery instead.” 


	7. Sour Reminders

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's a slow day at the pizzeria and unfortunately some poor decisions gets made. Hopefully they won't bite them in the ass down the line...

...

“Boooored,” Jeremy looked up from the catalogue and stared at Mal, who was sprawled over one of the tables.

“We know Mal.” Effie said, pausing in the middle of her routine maintenance with the Rockstar animatronics. “But we are the only four employees here and you know what Anna said.”

“Anna can suuuuuck it.”

“Can you at least shut up?” Jeremy asked. “It’s obnoxious and you only have another 3 hours before it’s technically ok to close.” Mal groaned dramatically, like he was being tortured.

“But Jere, what do I doooo? I'm not as techy as Efffieeeee,” Jeremy rubbed the bridge of his nose as he looked at Helpy.

“Is there anything against letting him at the scrap pile from last night?” Helpy opened his mouth, but then closed it, rubbing the back of his head.

“Ah, well...no?” Jeremy stood up, heading to the manager’s office. “I-I mean there might be a danger in letting something like that out! And you just managed to contain it last night…” Effie and Mal exchanged looks as Helpy chased after Jeremy.

“Contain…?”

“Yo, Jere, what are you even talking about?” Mal said. “I just said I was bored, not willing to risk my ass,” Michael entered from the kitchen as Jeremy opened the managerial door. “Dude, what the hell are you even-” Michael paled as he saw the flash of red metal and a familiar body shape as Jeremy struggled with the animatronic, the man cursing out that the animatronic wasn’t moving. 

“N-No-” Michael started to whisper, trembling as Jeremy slammed the manager door shut and pushed the broken clown animatronic to a sitting position. “No, no, no-” He crumpled to his knees, curling up. Effie hopped off the stage and hurried over to the man as Mal stepped closer to Jeremy.

“Hey, let’s move the clown outta here…” Mal said quickly and Jeremy looked at him with disbelief.

“I thought you were bored and needed something to do.”

“I’ll just get a high score on that motor game or whatever,” Mal said. “That thing looks dangerous and we really don’t need that here.” Jeremy raised an eyebrow. “Come on man, let’s just move it-”

“Why are you acting so fucking weird?”

“That’s fucking Circus Baby and in case you had your fucking head up your ass for the past few months, that  _ thing _ nearly killed him twice so get it out of here before I do it for you and lock you in there with it.” Jeremy was admittedly taken aback by Mal’s shift in mood but also noticed out of the corner of his eye, saw Michael having a panic attack while Effie was trying to calm him down.

“....Fine.” Jeremy grumbled. “But you need to help me drag it back in; this shit’s heavier than it looks.” Mal rolled his eyes at his boss’s attempt to maintain his dignity but nodded.

“They’re not gonna let her get you Mikey,” Effie said gently, making sure she blocked the view of Mal and Jeremy from Michael. 

“She’s here-she’s going to-I can’t-it’s-”

“Michael, come on buddy, focus on me…” Effie took his hand. “Come on buddy, focus on something, anything…”

“It’s back in the office.” Jeremy grunted. “Happy now?”

“You’re so damn lucky that you’re the boss.” Mal remarked and as Jeremy rolled his eyes, Mal headed over to Michael to help. After several tense minutes, the two were able to get Michael to his feet.

“Me and Michael are going outside.” Effie said. “Try not to kill each other.” She ordered as they walked out the front door. Mal glared at Jeremy before storming off to catch up to the other two.

“What the hell is that about?” He looked at Helpy who looked away. “Well, Helpy? You got anything in your fucking database to explain that fuckery?”

“...You’re not going to like it Mr. Fitzgerald...” Helpy said slowly before sighing. “Let me pull up the news articles."

.

* * *

.

“Looks like she’s got a human side.” Effie said as she read over the text from Anna as she sat next to Michael on the steps, rubbing his back. “She’s coming over to have an impromptu meeting with Jere about proper behavior.” Michael made a small hum sound as Mal grunted. “Relax Mal, you’re going to pop a blood vessel. Jeremy’s denser than a box of rocks, but he probably didn’t mean it. And we all know Helpy’s gonna help explain the situation to him so he’ll learn so if he does pull something like that again, we know that he’s a dick and we’ll make him regret it.”

“Like how?” Mal snarked and Effie shrugged.

“Move everything in his office a few inches to the left one week and then to the right the next?”

“My brother put laxatives in a friend of Father’s coffee when he took Charlie’s side in an argument.” Michael said tiredly and Effie raised an eyebrow, but pushed her curiosity to the side.

“How’d he get laxatives?” Mal asked slowly and Michael shrugged.

“It was safer to not ask when it came to my siblings or Father.” Effie snorted.

“I can imagine the parent teacher meetings, probably something out of a comedy sketch,” Michael chuckled as Mal sighed, clearly relieved that Michael was feeling better. 

"Yeah, 'Excuse me Mr. Afton, every student has been dealing with your gremlins and I'm about ready to put them in a box and ship 'em to the other side of the world'," Mal said in a rather flamboyant voice, earning snickers from the two while they waited for Anna.


	8. Digging Deeper

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A suggestion from Sombrerokiwi where one of the employees does some digging regarding the incident at Silver Parasol Games, though Mal is closer to the answers than he thinks ;)

...

“What cha doing Mal?”

“Digging.” Mal muttered, looking over the website. Effie idly looked over the man’s shoulders.

“On company time? Anna’s gonna to murder you for that you know,” Mal snorted.

“She can barely lift Helpy, I should be fine.” Effie rolled her eyes but laughed as she turned away.

“Your words, not mine.” Mal snickered before turning his attention back to the computer, which had the Silver Parasol Games employee page up. Granted, he was using the wayback machine, as the site was no longer existent.

“Ness...Mark…” Mal muttered the names of who he recognized on the employee page. He paused as he saw Jeremy’s face, a rare smile on the man's face. Mal smirked. “Well ain’t that a ca-winky-dink...now why does he work here when Ness and Mark don’t…” Mal paused and looked around the resturant to make sure that he wouldn’t get any extra help with his research. Only Effie was visible in the party room, trying to reattach Orville’s snout while the animatronic wasn’t on board with the plan. Mal smiled before turning back to the laptop. “Let’s see what they tried to hide…” A few clicks later, Mal was skimming articles and metaphorically pulling his hair out at the lack of consistent answers. “Damnit…”

“You remembered to get off the flashback program?” Mal glared at Effie as she sent a smirk at his direction. “You love me~”

“I am off the program, sheesh, I’m not that flighty.”

“Sure Mal~” Mal chuckled at the light hearted teasing before turning back to the laptop. He sighed as he looked at the shady articles, creditably questionable at best. He tapped the table as he tried to figure out the best way to go about his hunting.

“Do you need help with something Mal?” Mal jumped slightly as Helpy approached him. 

“I don’t think you’d be able to help me out here, Helpy,” Mal admitted. “I don’t want to get you in trouble.” Helpy raised an eyebrow. “Just history digging, that’s all.”

“You’re already in trouble with Fazbear’s Frights.” Effie barely caught her laughter and Mal sighed, giving the bear a cool glare.

“Look, if you’re gonna tell me about the rules I already know, then you’re wasting air. I just want to figure out why Mr. Peachy is working here when Effie’s friends aren’t.” Helpy nodded slowly, contemplating how to answer that. After a few moments, the bear spoke.

“Well, Mr. Fitzgerald did previously work for Fazbear Entertainment...and when the previous company collapsed, Fazbear Entertainment extended their help to Mr. Fitzgerald. Easier paperwork you know.” Mal raised an eyebrow.

“But why did it collapse in the first place?”

“One of the employees tried to take his face off.” Mal and Helpy snapped their attention to Effie, who had finally finished fixing Orville and was now coming over. “It was right at the same time as that big celebrity breakup,” Mal blinked slowly.

“Really?” Effie nodded.

“Yeap. Apparently the workload and the company policies there were pretty much shit and the guy snapped." Mal rubbed the back of his head.

“Damn…”

“Wait, how do you know that Effie?” Helpy asked and Effie shrugged.

“Nessa is my roommate, and Mark’s my friend. Both of them worked there.” She explained as if it was obvious. “What, did you think I wore that Blood Eagle band crap willingly?"

“It does bring out your eyes,” Helpy offered innocently as Mal frowned.

“Do you know who it was?” He asked and Effie looked at him. "The person who snapped I mean."

“Seriously Mal?”

“What? There’s just something about it that’s...off about the whole thing.” Effie sighed in annoyance and rubbed the bridge of her nose.

“Mal, I can’t believe I’m saying it, but I think this is a rabbit hole you shouldn’t go down it.” Mal opened his mouth. “Not yet I mean. Things are still raw so there’s probably gonna be people wanting to deck you or worse for poking your nose into this.” Mal sighed.

“I suppose you’re right…” He sighed and closed his laptop, deciding to humor his friend and the robotic bear. “I’ll drop it for now…where’s Michael by the way?”

“He’s putting the plush toys up in the prize corner!” Helpy exclaimed. "He's tall and puts them in a good spot for people to see!" 

"Cool, and Jeremy's still locked in the office?" The bear nodded. 

"Anna was not subtle in her disapproval of his actions the other day."

"She can be subtle?" Effie broke, hunching over as she laughed, as Helpy gave Mal a look.

"Seriously Mal? Are you asking for trouble?" The man shrugged.

"Its a talent so I've been told,"


	9. Late Night Drabble

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A small drabble involving Vanny and her roommates in the wee hours of the morning.

…

“Ness.”

“A-Ah-Effie! What-” The rainbow haired woman panicked as she scrambled to block the view of her computer and mask. Granted, it didn’t seem like her roommate was coherent enough to register what she was doing, but better safe than sorry.

“Headphones.” 

“Eh...what?” Her roommate groaned in annoyance.

“Headphones. It’s 2 in the morning and I have to deal with screaming children later.” Effie grumbled. “I don’t care if you’re talking to your friend or that new track is out or whatever the hell; just use some headphones.” Nessa watched as her roommate slammed the door and shuffled down the hall. She let out a breath she wasn’t aware she was holding, before chuckling.

_Why are you relaxed? She knows._

“Effie’s barely coherent,” Ness said slowly in choosing her words. “Even if she was, she’s not one for spilling secrets.” A pause and Ness sighed all but hearing the disapproval. “It’s not cheap to live on my own.”

_Rent surely hasn’t risen that much._

“Still ain’t cheap and technically since the delivery service got halted, I ain’t guaranteed a paycheck.”

_Halted doesn’t mean scrapped._

“That’s not gonna convince the landlord.” Nessa grumbled as she stretched, her spine popping slightly. She heard the sigh. “I’ll keep an eye on her. I promise." There was silence and Nessa sighed, knowing that he wasn't completely buying it. "Let me save what we accomplished tonight, and then rest...we can continue when she leaves." The voice made a bemused hum.

_Very well. We did make adequate progress before she interrupted._

Nessa nodded and turned back to her computer, making a mental note to try and soundproof her room before the next session.


	10. Visit from Upper Upper Management

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A drabble where the former Fazbear's Frights crew get a surprise visit from one of the higher ranking members of Fazbear's Entertainment, exploring personalities, relationships, and such.

….

"Who's the dude in the suit?" Mal shrugged.

"Dunno, but Anna’s face got all red and funny and I think she’s still swearing in the broom closet.” Effie raised an eyebrow.

“And that’s where Helpy is I assume?”

“Yeap.” 

“Huh...certainly doesn’t look like he belongs to any kid's party, that’s for sure.” 

“That’s Henry Emily.” Both Mal and Effie jumped slightly as they heard their friend speak. “He was Father’s friend…”

“He was a co founder, right?” Michael nodded and Mal made a face. 

“You’re not going to punch him.” Effie said, recognizing the look. “One, we open,”

“And nobody’s here.”

“Two, Anna would kill you.”

“Considering the swears coming from the closet? Anna would freaking approve.”

“And three, _I_ call dibs first in punching the creep.” Michael and Mal raised an eyebrow. “Fucker cut me off getting into the parking lot and I’m bitter.”

“Yeah no, I’m not explaining that to the cops.” Michael said firmly. “He’s probably going to introduce some new program or whatever to the place, and then Anna will turn it a-”

“Michael? How are you alive?” The trio turned to see a very unimpressed Jeremy and the suited man looking at them.

“A-Ah, Mr. Emily,” Michael managed out before adjusting his collar nervously. “I do...not know what you mean by that…” The man frowned slightly but before he could open his mouth, Mal spoke up.

“Hey, Effie, why don’t you take Michael and make sure that Anna’s not rewiring Helpy into some sort of superweapon? I’ll take the first walk around, alright?” Effie nodded.

“Sure thing Mal.” She gave a sickly sweet smile as she pulled Michael away and led the way towards the closet. Thankfully Anna hadn’t locked it so Effie poked her head in and saw Helpy looking awkwardly around for help as Anna was rubbing her temples.

“Anna?” Michael asked slowly. “Uh,”

“He never calls ahead when he shows up.” She grumbled. “So we all have to scramble to get things in order.”

“This is the first time he’s shown up here though,” Effie pointed out and Anna shook her head.

“Outside of here.” She sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose. “And according to Helpy, Jeremy has been following Paragraph 4 so it makes no sense why he’s here.” Effie and Michael exchanged looks.

“You are the head honcho though, right?” Effie asked slowly. “I mean, even if he was a founder or whatever, he’s not the one signing the checks, right? So we don’t need to listen to him if he’s introducing something stupid, right?” She turned to Helpy.

“Technically yes…” The bear said slowly. “But it’s been tradition to input suggestions from our founders…or ideas that seem in line with their original plans.” Michael opened his mouth before closing it and shaking his head.

“I’m not touching that with a 10 foot pole.” He stated as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "But Effie is right, we technically report to you Anna, if we must, can’t you make an argument that _I_ pull rank since my father's name is on the patents if he tries to pull something?" Anna stared at him for a few moments before jumping to her feet.

“If it didn’t kill HR, I’d kiss you!” She exclaimed before hurrying her way out of the closet. Michael slowly turned to Effie, who was fighting her laughter, making wheezing squeaks.

"Are you ok?" Helpy asked slowly as Effie leaned against the wall, waving her hand.

"I think she'll be fine," Michael said, smiling slightly as Effie slid down the wall to sit on the floor. The bear looked at Michael, who returned the questioning look with a shrug. “I think.”


	11. Wrath of the Technician

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeremy learns very quickly that he shouldn't be as forgetful as he usually is.

..

“FITZGERALD!” Helpy jumped as he and Michael stared at the dirty blonde storm out from the Parts and Service room and towards the manager’s office.

“What is Miss Effie going to do?” Michael blinked slowly.

“I don’t think I want to know…” Michael looked over at the Security Puppet, who was staring at where Effie was storming towards before looking at Michael, as if asking for permission to follow the woman. He nodded slowly, the puppet-like animatronic slipping out of its box to follow after, while the black bear animatronic watched with uncharacteristic annoyance. Michael studied Lefty, trying to figure out how or why the bear would be making that facial expression before Helpy spoke up.

“Mr. Fitzgerald will be ok, right?” Michael looked back at the smaller bear and smiled gently.

“I think so, I don’t think Effie wants to have to explain that to Anna…” He looked back at Lefty and saw the standard face the bear had. He made a face, noting that Effie had mentioned something about the bear in passing, but given the colorful choices in words from the office, it would be a very stupid way to die if he tried to talk to her after she left the office.

“Are you sure?”

“Hey, what’s up with the weird sounds?” Michael and Helpy to see Mal exit the kitchen, wiping his hands on his pants. “Is the speaker dying…” He trailed off as a few expletives were shared between Effie and Jeremy. “Nevermind then…I guess Jeremy forgot to order the parts she needed for Nedbear before the party today."

"Oh yeah, that is today…"

"Party of 10 people at 1 o'clock," Helpy said slowly, internally pulling up the data. "The Rogers Family; the birthday boy, Drake, is turning 7!" Helpy frowned. "But it was requested that Rockstar Foxy be able to tell a story not Nedbear…"

"There's going to be at least 7 other kids," Mal said. "Assuming that it'll be his parents supervising,"

"And Effie is rather proud of her mechanic work," Michael mentioned quietly before chuckling. "Remember the morning after you found that animatronic? She almost suplexed you when you suggested that we keep him shambling," Mal laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his head.

"Oh yeah, that was bad...thanks again for saving my ass,” Michael chuckled.

“You would’ve at least tried the same.” Michael retorted and Helpy made a face as Mal laughed.

“Yeah, very few things can stop Effie when she’s mad.” The door slammed open and Effie made a beeline towards the exit, the Security Puppet following up until Effie got to the exit.

“I’m taking my break.” Both boys nodded as Jeremy poked his head from the office. He looked over at the trio, looking a bit conflicted and confused.

“How do you put up with her?” Michael and Mal exchanged looks before looking back at their boss.

“It’s very simple, Mr. Fitzgerald.”

“We try not to piss her off by not forgetting to order the parts she needs.” Jeremy glared at the two before slamming the door. Mal snickered before checking his watch. “I’ll go ask Effie what she needs and try and find something at the hardware store that’ll work, and we’ll let Jeremy explain it to Anna.” Michael nodded as he stood up.

“I’ll get to work on making sure we have the right pizzas ready this time, and check the stock in snacks and stuff.” Mal gave a thumbs up and jogged out the door.

“Text me if I need to harass Getty for her cakes again!” Michael laughed.

“Like you need the excuse!” Mal laughed and exited as the Security Puppet looked at Michael curiously, as if confused. He just smiled and waved the puppet over.

“Come on, let’s get the room ready for the birthday party…”


	12. Lights Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> During a thunderstorm, the power goes out at the Pizzeria, leaving two of the employees to try and find backup power, unaware that the secrets left in the manager's office are not quite ready to reveal themselves just yet.

...

"Son of a bitch," Effie grumbled in annoyance as the lights cut out, the sound of thunder booming in the distance. She shuffled for her flashlight on her Keychain and within moments, she had a source of light. She shined the light over where the animatronics on stage were. "All good Michael?" The brunet nodded.

"Y-Yeah, the batteries are unplugged for now," Effie nodded.

"Good, Mal's picking up a surge protector right now so hopefully that'll save us from having to replace those constantly.”

“Yeah...is Jeremy still on his lunch? I think Anna said that there’s a generator in the manager’s office,” Michael said slowly and Effie nodded.

“I’ll go hit it, I don’t want another kitchen disaster.” She said as she walked to where the manager’s office was.

“But Effie, you-” 

“What is he going to do, fire me?” Effie turned and looked at Michael. “He’s as much stuck with me as we’re stuck with Mr. Personality. Sides, I’m making sure that the customers are happy so I’m doing my job~” She snickered as Michael chuckled with a soft sigh.

“Watch your step heading into the office, I think he mentioned about there being a stair or something.”

“Gotcha,” She walked over to the office and opened the door, flashing her flashlight into the dingy appearing office. She let out an annoyed sigh as she carefully stepped down into the room and swept the flashlight throughout the room, raising an eyebrow at the oversized vents on either side of the ancient appearing desktop computer setup. “Huh...weird layout, but to each his own I guess…” She walked over to the desk. “Let’s see if I can find the generator…” She looked under the desk, before hearing banging in the vents. “What the-?” She quickly flashed her light down the left vent and frowned as there was nothing. “Fitzgerald didn’t tell us about extra company…” She turned back to the desk and spotted the generator under the table. She quickly hit the on button and quickly backed up as the machine hummed for a second before there was a burst of sound, the old computer and fax machine powering on and the rest of the lights powering on. “There we go…” She slowly backed towards the door, half expecting something to come out of the vents. She made it to the door and quickly stepped back into the restaurant, shutting the door behind her. She let out a breath she wasn’t aware she was holding as Michael came over.

“Everything alright?” Effie shrugged, rubbing the back of her head.

“That office is a firetrap waiting to happen.” She said. “And I thought I heard something in the vents,”

“I thought Anna got an exterminator…” Effie shrugged, not wanting to admit that the sounds from the vents most certainly were  _ not _ the sounds of any normal rodent.

“Maybe they came back?” She offered and Michael studied her for a moment, as if not quite buying it before offering a smile.

“I doubt Fazbear Entertainment would go for the expensive brand of exterminator, so they probably missed a few spots…” He chuckled. “Anna’s gonna be mad.” Effie snickered.

“Yeah...come on, we better get the Melodies back on their batteries…” She said as they slowly walked over to the stage. “I’m admittedly surprised how popular they are…” Michael nodded in agreement.

“Maybe it’s Mr. Hippo’s storytelling?” Effie snorted and nudged him with her elbow.

“You mean his tangents? I don’t think he’s ever completed a single one of his stories, nor do I think he ever could.” Michael chuckled. “At least it’s better than that Candy Cadet thing…” She shuddered. “That thing gives me the creeps…”

“The candies are good though,” Effie shot a look to Michael, who shrugged. “I wouldn’t think about its stories too much, Effie; sometimes a story is just a story,” He hopped onto the stage, leaving the woman to momentarily ponder his words, a sense of dread creeping up in her stomach. She quickly shook her head in the attempt to clear her mind before hopping up onto the stage as well.

“Yeah, you’re right. Maybe we can convince Jeremy to replace the audio tracks and have something a bit more uplifting play. Like Cherry Bomb or something.” Michael laughed.

“You know we’d get comments, especially if there’s no cherry flavored candies in that thing.”

“It would give us something to do outside of making sure Helpy doesn’t trip over his own feet.”

“Good point,”


	13. Clean Up Conversation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Effie and Michael have a conversation while the former is cleaning out Lefty in the Parts and Service room

...

"What are you doing Effie?"

"Cleaning out Lefty. Apparently there's ants showing up near the animatronics and Jeremy wants to avoid having a repeat of what happened with the Rockstar Bonnie." Effie explained. "You can hang out with me and Charlie if you want,"

"Charlie…?"

"Yeah, she haunts the bear…" Effie trailed off as there was a quiet knocking. "Oh! Sorry, sorry, Charlie, this is Michael, he works here too." There were a few knocks. "She says hi,"

"You two communicate through knocking?" Michael asked slowly, sitting down in a nearby chair, and Effie shrugged as she popped out the jaw. 

"It's a method," She said. "It's not like you can really hear ghosts without a recorder or something. Hey, hand me the wipes," Michael handed her the can and she popped it open and went to work wiping down the animatronic's insides. "Snickers? How in the hell did the bear get Snickers?"

"Maybe during the night the animatronics try to mimic the kids? I know Mal has a snack stash at the security desk,"

"Uh-huh." Effie muttered. “Charlie, were you a big fan of these of something?” There were a few knocks and Effie made a huh sound.

“What did she say?”

“She says her dad never let her have snickers…”

“Perhaps he was health conscious?” Michael offered. “I know a friend of my father’s didn’t approve of any candy he didn’t bring himself.” Effie shrugged.

“Guess it’s better than those peanut candies your brother used to throw at my head.” Effie made a face. “Worse was when he’d lick them first to try and get them to stick into my hair.” Michael shuddered.

“I do recall that...how’d you get him to stop though?”

“My dad made a batch of brownies with some prune juice or something laxative related and made him eat the whole thing. Said he shouldn’t be wasting candy or something like that.” Michael’s eyes widened.

“That’s why he never liked brownies unless they were the Little Debbies packages!”

“Exactly!” Effie laughed. “I’m still in awe your dad gave the ok for that,” Michael smiled softly and the conversation trailed off to an awkward silence. Charlie knocked a few times and Effie made a face as she mentally translated the knocks. “She says that sounds like a brother of a friend of hers…she’s not sure of the name though…” Effie shrugged. “It’s alright Charlie, we don’t exactly know what happens if a ghost pushes them too hard and I doubt Ghostbusters counts as a real life example on ghosts.” Michael chuckled as Charlie knocked. “You never saw Ghostbusters? Shoot, we’ll have to fix that…”

“How?” Effie gave Michael a look, the gears already turning in her head.

“Come on, Anna’s been on us for fun new ideas, and it is getting closer to Halloween, so why not have weekend movie nights? There’s plenty of family friendly movies, and heck we could even have some older people only nights.”

“I guess that could work…I mean, it certainly would help drum up business.” Effie beamed.

“Awesome, I can finish up Lefty and then we can go talk to Jeremy and get the logistics figured out.” There were some knocks and Effie laughed. “Look Charlie, if you want to watch the R-Rated Horror movies, who am I to stop you?”

“It certainly didn’t stop my brother and his friends…” Michael noted. “He was all but banned from the theater unless Father was there with him because he tried sneaking into so many R films…”

“Did he try the trenchcoat trick?”

“Twice. And tried to rope my sister into it too…”

“And that went well?”

“They got caught when they were arguing about who was going to be on top.” Effie nearly toppled out of her chair as she laughed and very faintly Michael could’ve sworn he heard a young girl’s laughter coming from near the black bear animatronic. He studied the bear for a moment before deciding to not comment on that just yet.


	14. Make Up Mishap

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A short drabble set in the past where Elizabeth Afton goes to a friend for some help and their dads...find the results of that.

...

“Hey Effie,” The sandy blonde looked up at her red haired friend as she sat next to her on the couch, a rare time that the girls were actually hanging at one of their houses instead at one of the restaurants. 

“Yeah Lizzie?”

“Do you think I’m pretty?” Effie got herself up from laying upside down on the couch and looked at her friend.

“What? Of course you’re pretty!” She argued before making a face. “Do I have to punch Sammy again?” The red head shook her head quickly.

“No, he didn’t say anything like that.”

“Good, cause he’s got a thick head and my hand still hurts from yesterday.” Lizzie looked at her in confusion. “He was bullying Mikey again and I told him to stop it and he said, ‘What are you going to do, punch me?’ So I did.” 

“And you didn’t get in trouble?”

“Well Sammy would have to tell his dad that he was bullying Mikey again.” Effie argued. “He and his friends aren’t _that_ stupid.”

“Somedays I wonder…” Lizzie sighed softly. Effie took her friend’s shoulder.

“Lizzie, I don’t know why you’re thinking that you’re not pretty, but I know for a fact you are!” Effie said. “Charlie would agree with me.” Effie stood and the couch. “Hey! Charlie!”

“What?!” Charlie’s voice came from the bathroom.

“You think Lizzie’s pretty!”

“Duh!!” Effie sat back down on the couch and looked at Lizzie. 

“See what I mean?” Lizzie didn’t look convinced and Effie made a face back before her eyes lit up. “I got it!” She hopped off the couch. “Come on!” She headed to her room, Lizzie following in confusion.

“Where are we going?” She asked as Charlie came out of the bathroom.

“My aunt got me a makeup kit for Christmas and Mr. Fitzgerald that Circus Belle wears makeup to make sure everyone can see how pretty she is!” Effie said and Lizzie’s eyes lit up.

“She is really pretty!”

“Yeah! That’s a great idea Effie!” Charlie said, she and Lizzie realizing what Effie was planning. “I’ve seen my aunt put on makeup, so I know how to do it, I mean if you want help Lizzie.”

“Of course Charlie!”

“Let’s get to it!”

.

* * *

.

_Later_

“What…”

“Girls, what did you…”

“I’m going to kill Helen for this…” Effie’s father grumbled before looking at the girls. “What are you three doing?”

“Making Lizzie super pretty, duh,” Effie said simply, accidentally smearing the eyeshadow across her nose. 

“Where did you get this…?” Henry asked slowly, still wrapping his head around the mess made.

“I got it for Christmas Mr. Emily.”

“Ah…”

“We can you guys pretty too!” Charlie offered. “We’re really good at it!”

“I will have to pass on that,” Will said slowly. “But I do appreciate the offer from you three...but we should clean you up before we head home for dinner.”

“But I’m super pretty now Father!” Lizzie argued and Will looked conflicted, obviously not wanting to break his daughter’s dream, but also not wanting to go out in public with a child with caked on makeup. Thankfully Effie’s father seemed to have experience with this kind of situation before.

“Kiddos, it’s great that you want to look super pretty all the time, but really you guys should save it for super special occasions,” He said as he got to their eye level. “I mean, we wouldn’t you guys to get stopped by reporters all the time thinking you were a movie star, or Circus Belle,” 

“But she has it on all the time Daddy.”

“True, but that’s mainly because some people have a bit of a history of forgetting her name,” Henry and Will shot the man a look, earning giggles from their daughters. “Trust me, I’ve been trying to convince her to keep it to only special occasions but you three know how she is,” The girls nodded. “How about the next time we have a super special party, we’ll let you do all our makeup, ok?”

“Sean…” Will started to say, only to see his daughter’s look of excitement. He let out a long sigh. “That sounds like a good idea, but it better be a spectacular party.” Henry nodded in agreement, not trusting himself to not crack up laughing as the girls distracted themselves of what they would do for the party.

“Of course Will, it can’t just be any party for makeup…”


	15. Ghostly Conversations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A drabble where during the day, Effie and Charlie converse over the daily going ons at this Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria.

...

“Ma’am this animatronic is broken,” Charlie bit back a sigh as she watched Effie being dragged towards the black bear by an older woman; it seemed almost routine that some parent would complain about this animatronic, as if the manager actually had any power to toss the animatronic out. One benefit for Fazbear Entertainment’s weird rules, she supposed. 

“How so?” Effie asked. 

“The left eye isn’t illuminated like the right one, and he just moves awkwardly compared to the other Melodies!”

“Well, Lefty is actually part of a new set of animatronics the company’s planning to introduce at the restaurant.” Effie said smoothly. “Technically a prototype, yes, but the kids like ‘em,” The woman didn’t look convinced.

“Uh huh,”

“Well I’m not going to argue with a bunch of twelve year olds ma’am,” Effie pointed out, earning snickers from Charlie. “Lefty is pretty popular, and the bear is up to our safety standards so they’re not dangerous,” The woman frowned. “Look, I don’t have the authorization to work on the animatronics during showtimes, so your best bet is to talk to the manager. He’s over near the kitchen if you want to catch him.” Without waiting for Effie to finish, the woman stormed off in the direction. Effie snorted and looked up at the bear on stage. “They keep falling for it...it's almost boring at this point,” Charlie snorted and knocked against the containment chamber, hoping that it was loud enough for the other to hear. 

_ Why don't you send them to Mal? _

“I dunno, Mal might pull that serial killer story out again; he pulled it on a group of kids the other day and holy shit man, I thought we were going to get a visit from Carlton,” Charlie raised an eyebrow at the name.

_ Who? _

“Carlton’s the sheriff, relatively new in town I think; he’s already made an impression with Anna,” Effie explained, shaking her head. “He’s not to the point of hanging out trying to scope me, Michael, and Mal out to get answers, but he’s certainly close…”

_ Anna seems like a lot makes her mad. _

“I mean no offense to the place you haunt, but Fazbear’s isn’t the most helpful for your blood pressure, and that’s not even counting the night shift.” Charlie made a face; she hadn’t seen Effie at all at night in this place. “I haven’t done any here, but I’ve certainly heard the stories, especially with that old old place, I think it’s got the original characters-er-not technically original but original enough for Fazbear’s.”

_ What? _

“It’s not really well known, but my folks used to own a restaurant place that had bots too,” Effie said softly. “A lot of the characters got reused when Mr. Afton and Mr. Emily bought it." She shrugged and Charlie realized that this was a tender subject so decided against pushing further. 

"Hey Effie," The girls turned to see Michael come over. "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, just some lady wanting Lefty to be fixed." Michael made a face.

“And you sent her to Jeremy?”

“I mean we don’t really need a lawsuit do we?” Michael didn’t look convinced and Charlie snickered. “I’m serious Michael, you think that Mal won’t stick his foot in his mouth?”

“Well no, but Jeremy’s already agitated and I doubt this’ll help his mood.”

“Well that’s a shocker.” Effie grumbled, rubbing the bridge of her nose before looking up at the bear. “What, did Nedbear spend the night telling dad jokes or did Jere get chewed out for telling the hippo to stuff it?” Charlie paused, trying to figure out the best way to explain it.

“Please don’t tell me that they can move off the battery,” Michael grumbled. “I still have the soldering burns when I tried to help you…” Effie smiled sympathetically as Charlie knocked. Michael looked at Effie who furrowed her brows.

“Only you and three other bots move around at night?” Effie said slowly. “You know who the other three are? Or what they look like?” Charlie frowned, but thankfully before she could answer that, there was a crash near the Melodies and Mal’s panicked voice.

“Kid that’s not supposed to come off like that! Crap! Crap! Oh geez-Don’t worry Orvillie, this is...fixable!” Charlie watched Effie’s face fall, before she took a deep breath and plastered a smile on her face before walking off towards the mess.

“Well, Mal’s buying lunch for a while.” Michael sighed. “I better go help out too,” He started to walk off before stopping and turning back to the animatronic. “Hey Charlie...when you roam around tonight...can you see if there is an Elizabeth around?” Charlie stared at the man in mild confusion. “I just...have a feeling, that’s all...and I just want to make sure I’m not going crazy...ok?” Charlie nodded slowly and with some effort managed to get the bear to nod. Michael smiled. “Thank you,” Charlie watched the man walk towards the chaos going on and made a face; why would Michael want to know if there was an Elizabeth haunting this place? Charlie made a face before making a mental note is not only ask Effie about it later, but to see if she could get some snooping done from the manager's office while Jeremy dealt with the other three.


	16. Rule Breaching

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A mini set of drabbles with some ideas I'm toying with regarding Security Breach and how it'll play in with my timeline and such.

…

“Why.”

“Why what?” Mal asked, batting his eyes as Jeremy as he leaned against the table. Jeremy’s eye twitched before he pointed to the child who was sitting and watching Effie reattach Nedbear’s hat to the bear’s head while avoiding the jerky attempts at ‘help’ from said bear. 

“Why is the kid here before we’re even open?”

“One, his name is Gregory,” Mal corrected. “And two, I’ve got to watch him this week and you didn’t approve my time off this week.” Jeremy made a face.

“You wanted the entire week off! It’s freaking Spring Break!”

“Yeah, and that’s why I needed it off.” Mal pointed out. “I can’t just leave him alone at home for 10 plus hours. Besides, this is a family establishment and he’s family!” Jeremy stared at Mal, who groaned in annoyance, knowing that Jeremy thought that the kid was his own. “He’s a cousin.” The color not so subtly returned to Jeremy’s face. “Look Jere, I don’t care-”

“It’s Jeremy.”

“I don’t care, but Luis’s job is very ‘anti-small children’, so either he stays or we both go and leave you to deal with Anna when I come back asking for my severance paycheck.” Jeremy frowned.

“Fine, whatever. But if he causes trouble, you both are out and Anna can shove it up her….ya know.” Jeremy stormed off to the manager’s office, grumbling about some leftovers, or at least that was what Mal was able to catch. The orange haired man rolled his eyes before walking over to his cousin.

“Everything good?”

“Despite the bear’s best efforts, yeah,” Effie said as she placed the wrench in her pocket. “Jeremy blowing a gasket?”

“It is a normal day at the office.” Mal said. “It’s his own fault he didn’t approve the time off, I mean, unless that new place opens soon, I can’t do anything.” Effie raised an eyebrow.

“Dare I ask what you mean by that?”

“It’s gonna be a pizza plex opening soon,” The boy explained simply. “It’s gonna have laser arcades, mini golf, and a lot of cool stuff. Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza MegaPlex is the name!” Effie’s face was priceless but she shook her head.

“At least explains Jere’s mood,” She said. “But I suppose we’ll have to see what Anna says,” Gregory’s eyes went wide with excitement.

“You mean that you guys will work there?” Mal chuckled.

“I mean if they want to keep us, they might...but I heard they’ve got robot waiters though so I’ll be pretty much useless,” 

“You can join the animatronics on stage,” Effie joked before sighing. “I better go see if Jeremy’s got the parts I need to work on Hoppy; behave you two.” She walked off and Mal rolled his eyes playfully.

“Can you believe her? I’m always well behaved,”

“You almost ruined Luis’s coffee date, remember?”

“Pfft, that wasn’t _all_ me, he’s a klutz in all forms; and come on, asking out his coworker? That’s just asking for trouble,” Mal said, crossing his arms. “Sides that Nessa chick’s...weird.”

“Yeah...She stares a lot at him without blinking…” Mal nodded.

“Maybe she’s an actor or something? I know there’s some theater teachers who are crazy about making sure you look at people when they’re talking…” He shrugged. “Come on, let me show you the arcade games we got,” 

“Lead the way!” He said before noticing Effie stopping by the black bear animatronic. “Hey, what’s she doing?”

“Effie says that robot’s haunted,” Mal said, shrugging absently. 

“And she talks to ghosts?”

“I guess…”

“That would’ve been cool for the haunted house you were making…” Male chuckled and ruffled his cousin’s hair.

“Now that’s a great idea Greg!” He exclaimed. “Maybe I can bribe Anna for Halloween to do it here,”

“Thanks Mal!”

.

* * *

.

“Yo Michael!” Michael pushed himself out from under the springboard for the ballpit and looked up at Mal and the brunet next to him. “Oh, there you are, I wanted to introduce my cousin to everybody. This is Gregory; Gregory, this is Michael,” Michael nodded as the kid waved. “He’s going to be hanging out with us during the week.”

“O-Oh, ok, cool...nice to meet you,” Michael said. “Uh, I got to finish this before Helpy tries to test it again.” Mal made a face before sighing.

“I’ll try and distract him while you finish that up...Greg, don’t hesitate to yell if anything’s up!” Mal said before jogging off to find the small bear. Gregory nodded as Michael rolled back under the springboard.

“Why is there a diving board attached to the ballpit?"

"Testing I think," Michael admitted. "Mr. Fitzgerald does all the testing and stuff like that...he's the manager of the place here,"

"He's weird," 

"Yeah, he is, but I guess it's just the stress of running the place with only me, Mal, and Effie…" Gregory nodded slowly.

"I guess that would make sense…I'm going to play the games,"

"Have fun," Michael said as he paused to watch the boy head off to play one of the fighting games. He smiled softly, before focusing on getting the ball pit diving board to work properly.

.

* * *

.

_Later_

"Gregory~" Gregory covered his mouth, fighting back tears as he heard the footsteps of the white patchwork rabbit. "It's time to go home and go to bed," He heard the footsteps stop and the rabbit make a confused huh sound. "Who are you?" Gregory looked up at the ceiling and saw in the reflection someone with dark hair standing in front of the rabbit. He certainly didn't look like he worked there, even without the golden Freddy like mask on his face; he was dressed like he was either going to a fancy party or waiting at a super expensive restaurant. Gregory frowned; dealing with the rabbit and not getting killed was hard enough. "Excuse me, but I need to get past you and find Gregory." The man didn't move. "Did you not hear me? You're in my way," Still no response and the annoyance was obvious in her sigh. "I don't want to do this to you, but you're in my way." Gregory watched in confusion as the man merely held up his hand, holding something in his hand. "What-? How did-?!" Gregory watched as the woman reached for the device. “Give that back!”

"Leave." Gregory frowned, wondering why the voice sounded similar, as the rabbit stepped back. “Now.” The rabbit growled and lunged at him, only to miss and stumble forward as the Freddy-masked man stepped to the side and clicked the device before dropping it and stepping on it, crushing it into pieces. “Oops.” She growled, her voice glitching. “Now you have no choice but to leave.” Gregory watched as she looked at the remains before running off down the hall, probably hoping to avoid meeting any of the Glamrocks when they got back online. Speaking of which there was the hum of the animatronics across the pizzaplex powering on, which meant that at least he’d have some help again in dealing with that stupid rabbit lady. “Gregory.” The color drained from the boy’s face as the familiar voice spoke again; how did he know he was here?! “Go find Freddy...you should have enough time before she tries to find you again.” Gregory stayed still for a few moments before the voice spoke again, a gentle chuckle in the tone. “I can see you in the reflection of the security mirrors that are in that corner over there.”

“Oh…” Well that would’ve been bad had that rabbit been paying attention.

“Just go, find Freddy...and keep you head on a swivel…” Gregory took a deep breath, and pushed himself to his feet and ran towards where Freddy was deactivated by the rabbit woman, deciding against pressing his luck with the masked guy, though he couldn’t help but shake the feeling he knew who that masked person was, especially given how close to that voice sounded like his cousin's. Gregory shook his head before running over to Glamrock Freddy, who was getting back to his feet. 

“I’ll worry about that once I’m out of here.” He mumbled to himself. “I’ve got enough to worry about already…”


End file.
